1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system for printing data and providing printed material.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, in order to print data created by an application program, such as a word processor or a spreadsheet program, executing on a personal computer, it is necessary to start a printing process routine, provided to the application program, or to start a printer driver by the application program. The data is then printed by a printer either connected directly to the personal computer or connected via a LAN or the like to the personal computer.
Hence, if the user wishes to quickly provide printed matter to a remote user, the transmitting user has to first print out the material from his/her own printer in the manner as described above. The transmitting user then transmits that printed matter via a facsimile machine.
Rather than first printing the material on the user""s own printer, an alternate method is to connect a fax modem directly to the personal computer, create image data from the document data edited on the display, and then transmit that image data via the fax modem. The remote user receives the image data via the remote user""s own facsimile or personal computer, and subsequently prints out the data.
However, according to this method, the transmitting user has to start a fax transmission application program, in order to transmit data to the remote user, separately from the application program which the user has used in editing the document data.
For this reason, when desiring both to output the edited data on the user""s own printer and to transmit the edited data to a remote user, the transmitting user has to quit his/her own application program for editing and printing the data or at least start the application program for transmitting the data.
Further, when transmitting data using the fax modem transmission software, transmission becomes possible only after calling the remote user via a communication line and making a connection with the remote user""s personal computer. Such a one-on-one connection via the communication line costs extremely high if the call is long distance.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system capable of facilitating to obtaining printed matter both at a user""s end and at a remote user""s end through using inexpensive communication.
In order to attain the above and other objects, the present invention provides a printing system for creating electronic mail (print mail) from print data and transferring that mail via a communication line from one computer system, provided with a printer, to another computer system, also provided with a printer, such that the computer system receiving the mail can print the print data included in the mail on the printer at the receiving side.
The present invention provides a printing device comprising: a printer capable of printing print data; input means for receiving a print process instruction for instructing printing of print data; selecting means for selecting, in response to a print process instruction, whether print data is desired to be printed in the printing device or in a remote printing device; first print processing means for, when the selection means selects that the print data is desired to be printed in the printing device, controlling the printer to print the print data; and print mail transmitting means for, when the selection means selects that the print data is desired to be printed in the remote printing device, creating print mail including the print data and header data, the header data including print information indicative of a printing condition, at which the print data is desired to be printed, and for transmitting the print mail to the remote printing device through a communication line.
According to another aspect, the present invention provides a printing system, provided to a computer system A capable of transmitting mail via a communication line to another computer system B, the printing system comprising: selecting means for, when receiving a print process instruction, selecting whether print data should be printed in the computer system A or in the other computer system B; first print processing means for, when the selection means selects that the print data should be printed in the computer system A, controlling a printer provided in the computer system A to print the print data: and print mail transmitting means for, when the selection means selects that the print data should be printed in the computer system B, creating print mail including the print data and header data, the header data including print information indicative of a printing condition, at which the print data should be printed, and for transmitting the print mail to the computer system B through the communication line.
According to still another aspect, the present invention provides a printing system comprising: a first printing device; and a second printing device connected with the first printing device via a communication line, the first printing device including: a printer capable of printing print data; selecting means for, when receiving a print process instruction, selecting whether print data should be printed in the first printing device or in the second printing device; first printing process means for, when the selection means selects that the print data should be printed in the first printing device, controlling the printer to print the print data; and print mail transmission means for, when the selection means selects that the print data should be printed in the second printing device, creating mail including the print data and header data, the header data including print information indicative of a printing condition, at which the print data should be printed, and for transmitting the mail to the second printing device through the communication line; the second printing device including: another printer capable of printing print data; print information detecting means for detecting whether or not the print information is included in a header portion of mail received via the communication line; and second printing process means for, when the print information detecting means detects that the print information is included in the header portion of the received mail, controlling the other printer to print the print data included in the received mail in accordance with the print information.
According to still another aspect, the present invention provides a printing system, provided in a communication environment capable of transmitting mail via a communication line from a computer system A to another computer system B, the system comprising: selecting means, provided to a computer system A, for, when receiving a print process instruction, selecting whether print data should be printed in the computer system A side or in the computer system B side; first printing process means, provided to the computer system A, for, when the selection means selects that the print data should be printed in the computer system A side, controlling a printer provided in the computer system A to print the print data; print mail transmission means, provided to the computer system A, for, when the selection means selects that the print data should be printed in the computer system B side, creating mail including the print data and header data, the header data including print information indicative of a printing condition, at which the print data should be printed, and for transmitting the mail to the computer system B through the communication line; print information detecting means, provided to the computer system B, for detecting whether or not the print information is included in a header portion of mail received via the communication line; and second printing process means, provided to the computer system B, for, when the print information detecting means detects that the print information is included in the header portion of the received mail, controlling a printer provided in the computer system B to print the print data included in the received mail in accordance with the print information.
According to a further aspect, the present invention provides a program storage medium capable of being read by a computer system A capable of transmitting mail to and receiving mail from another computer system B via a communication line, the program comprising: a program of selecting, when receiving a print process instruction, whether print data should be printed in the computer system A or in the other computer system B; a program of controlling, when the print data should be printed in the computer system A, a printer provided in the computer system A to print the print data; and a program of creating print mail including the print data and header data when the print data should be printed in the computer system B, the header data including print information indicative of a printing condition, at which the print data should be printed, the program transmitting the print mail to the computer system B through the communication line.